Whooo. I finally am updating! Sorry I've been MIA… I had finals, ran off to France, came back, started school… yeah, don't ask.
Thanks to Tara-Yo, ;) , Yvette Sorrow, pishcules, Calla-ForEvEa, PnAyxTrAcKsTaR01, hogwarts, fran, Quidditch3, Icy Lullaby, writergirl1505, and potatomaker for reviewing. You all are great!
Ok, this is the first chapter of any ff or ficlet I've ever written that could be considered fluffy. I found it actually incredibly difficult to write. I've been doing angst for so long that it just seems unnatural to have something end happily. Anyhow, if it seems a bit lacking, just know that I struggled writing this chapter. Other than that…please keep reviewing! I can't stress how important it is. Enjoy!
& SEPARATING &
Chapter 23: Winter Wars
The next few weeks passed with unnatural speed and time seemed to be measured by the next time Draco would sneak off to meet Ginny. 10 am…6 more hours until a pre-dinner snog. 12:30…3 hours and 30 more minutes. 2 pm…2 more hours. Whole class periods were spent dreaming up different ways to drag Ginny off with him—different ways of ambushing her in the hallway between classes, sending her notes with disappearing ink, getting her attention with suggestive looks from across the Great Hall. Draco found that as he daydreamed, his leg involuntarily bounced rapidly up and down in anticipation.
"I have to go," Ginny moaned breathily one afternoon after Draco trapped her in a deserted hallway and pulled her into what appeared to be a dark janitor's closet. She made no attempt to move and Draco continued sucking on the soft skin between Ginny's shoulder and ear, eliciting another moan.
"They're waiting for me in the Great Hall," Ginny said, closing her eyes and tilting her head back to rest on the wall. "I'm supposed to…oh…"
"Let them wait," Draco mumbled against her skin, pressing Ginny against the wall a bit more letting her know he had no intention of letting her go any time soon. He grinned to himself when Ginny's hands began swirling in his hair and tugging at it each time Draco's mouth hit a sensitive spot.
"They're getting suspicious…" Ginny tried again.
Of course they were. What started out as an occasional rendez-vous once or twice a week was turning into a several times a day thing. Draco's own friends were beginning to ask questions and Draco found he was running out of excuses. After all, there were only so many times one could plausibly forget something in the library, and no one seemed to need as much fresh air as Draco recently had. He and Ginny had been luck so far, though. No other hormone driven teens had ever wandered into their broom closets or empty classrooms. Draco didn't want to think about it anymore. One of his hands moved to Ginny's leg and began inching its way up her skirt.
"Draco, we can't…" her small hands pushed lightly against Draco's chest. He frowned. "I told you I couldn't stay long. Harry's supposed to tutor me in DADA."
If anything could dampen the mood, any mention of Potter would do it. Draco immediately retracted his hand. All at once it was over as if Draco had not only been doused, but completely drenched by a bucket of ice cold water.
"Right. Wouldn't want to keep you from your boyfriend," Draco snarled, crossing his arms over his chest petulantly and pulling away. The more and more time Draco spent with Ginny, the more he was convinced she was absolutely nutters. It was shocking, really. She was leaving Draco…Draco Malfoy, to get cozy with the whiny little orphan.
"Oh stop it. You know very well he's not my boyfriend," Ginny said indignantly, straightening her shirt a little. "And don't look at me like that," she added when Draco stared back at her with skeptical eyes.
"Don't pretend you don't worship the ground the skinny little twerp walks on, Weasley…Though how anyone could is beyond me," he added just loud enough for her to hear, and continued standing arms crossed stubbornly.
"How many times do I have to tell you, Draco? I don't like Harry!" she said more loudly, her little hands bawling up into fists. "Why should you care anyway? It's not like you don't have a million little tramps at your beckon call."
Wait one second. How did she turn this around to be Draco's fault? Clever minx. Draco had no intention of letting her win, no matter how much her feistiness turned him on. He could not let himself get caught up in the desires of his trousers. "Now hold on Weasley. You're the one hurrying off to meet someone else, not me. And why shouldn't you? It's not like THIS means anything," he said emphatically, gesturing with a hand between the two of them.
For an instant, Ginny looked almost…hurt… "I don't think if I ever searched the entire world, I could find anyone as immature as you, Draco Malfoy." She was upset…She had used his full name. Ginny snatched up her bag from the floor and quickly left the broom closet, letting the door slam behind her.
Draco stood in the darkness of the closet, almost preferring to be absolutely blind to the world for a moment. This had certainly not turned out the way he had planned during all of his morning classes. He'd even drawn diagrams, none of which depicted him being ALONE in the closet. If this situation proved anything, it was that talking was completely unnecessary and should be kept to an absolute bare minimum in the future. The question was…what would Draco be forced to do to ensure that there would even BE a future?
Cringing, Draco looked both ways and stepped out of the broom closet. He, Draco Malfoy, could NOT be seen coming out of a broom closet alone—the Gryffindork Gossips would have a hey-day. And as far as Ginny was concerned, he would certainly not apologize. He hadn't done anything wrong. It had all been Ginny's fault, though Draco doubted very much that SHE would see it as clearly as he did.
It was obvious Ginny was trying to ignore him, Draco noted during dinner in the Great Hall. Several times he had tried to get her attention, and each time she would emit a loud, pretentious laugh as if someone had just made the joke of the year. She'd finish off the act by smirking in Draco's general direction while touching Harry's arm. And even though Draco knew it was an attempt, and a pitiful one at that, on the Weasley's part to aggravate him, Draco had the overwhelming desire to drag Potter outside and give him a beating just for breathing.
That was it--Draco was surely above playing the part of pitiful bystander number one. Looking around quickly, Draco picked up his plate and goblet, and slid down a few seats to where Pansy and her gang were sitting.
"Uh, hi, Draco," Pansy said obviously a bit startled.
He had gotten Ginny's attention—she'd removed her hand from Harry's arm and was now intently watching Draco. He smirked. Two could definitely play this game.
"Hey, Panse…" Draco began, slipping his arm noticeably around Pansy's waist. "Wow, you smell good enough to eat." He leaned forward and began nuzzling Pansy's neck, making HER giggle and Ginny cringe. You could always count on Pansy to act like a twittering idiot when you needed her to, Draco thought.
Suddenly, Ginny, red faced and fists once again bawled, got up and stalked out of the Great Hall. Draco pulled back smugly and took a large swig from his goblet in celebration. He'd won, easily.
"Well, thanks for that. See you, then," he said, quite happy with himself, and got up from the table to go find Ginny. Now they were both even and everything could be forgotten. Draco was so pleased with himself as he walked towards the door, in fact, that he managed to ignore the expletives Pansy yelled after him.
Draco walked out just in time to see Ginny duck outside the castle and followed after her. Pulling his collar up a bit higher around his neck and slipping his hands inside his pockets, Draco stepped onto the fresh-powdered snow.
Ginny turned around at the sound and sighed agitatedly. "Why do you always follow me?"
"Come now, you can't still be mad," Draco said, walking almost lazily towards her.
"Oh no? You get mad when I even study with Harry, but you practically fondle puggy-Parkinson in front of the whole school and I'm not allowed to be slightly agitated?" Ginny countered, her face contorting as if the mere mention of Pansy left a sour taste in her mouth.
"STUDY? Is that what you call it?!" Draco's voice had quickly elevated. "Oh Harry, you're so funny," he said in a high-pitched voice meant to impersonate Ginny. "You clever, lovely little Scarhead of an oaf!" Draco continued, petting the air around him and ogling at it dreamily. "I was almost sick on the floor from your STUDYING, Weasley," he said, his voice having returned to normal.
"So you're jealous then, is that what this is?"
Once again Weasley had missed the mark completely. Draco snorted and turned back for the castle. "Yeah, that's a good one…Right, I'm jealous, that's what this all is. You've pinned tail on the Kneazle, Weasely, you really have. Your intuition never ceases to amaze me!"
The fact of the matter is that, much to Draco's annoyance, the Weasley's comment had some truth in it. Draco didn't really know much about jealousy. His possessions were always better then everyone else's, and what he didn't have already, he went out and bought. Most girls were putty in his hands, and he could steal any girl from their boyfriend with little to no work at all. Jealousy is what other people felt towards Draco Malfoy, not the other way around. But as much as Draco hated to admit it, jealousy is exactly what he felt whenever Ginny even mentioned another guy's name, particularly Potter.
Suddenly, something cold and hard collided with the back of Draco's head. His hand immediately shot up to feel what appeared to be snow on the nape of Draco's neck. He whipped around to see Ginny covering her mouth, suppressing her giggles. Draco looked at his hand and back at Ginny, only to gaze at his hand once more. Had she just thrown snow at him?
"You act as if you've never been hit with a snowball before," Ginny said almost incomprehensibly through bursts of giggles, a hand clutching her side.
"I haven't," Draco replied simply, raising an eyebrow at her curiously.
"Be serious," Ginny said, her laughing having disappeared only to be replaced with a look of astonishment.
"I am."
"You've never once had a snowball fight?" She tried again.
"Of course not," Draco sniffed as if even the very thought of rolling around in the snow was beneath him. Ginny continued to gape at him. "Look, just because your family enjoys animal-like romps in the snow doesn't mean we all do…"
Draco barely had enough time to finish the sentence before another snowball collided front on with his face, instantly making him splutter. Scraping the snow from his face, Draco tore across the ground towards Ginny. He wasn't about to let her keep acting as if he were her own personal target. Ginny screeched just before Draco's body collided with her, and soon the two were in a heap on the snow.
Immediately Draco got to his knees and began dumping armfuls of snow on Ginny. It wasn't terribly effective, as much of the snow blew away with the wind, but it was the best he could do given the fact that Draco had never been instructed on how to make a proper snowball. Ginny spluttered and coughed, but when Draco reached over to gather more snow, she whipped out her wand and tackled him to the ground. Before Draco could stop her, she flicked her wand. A dozen snowballs were suddenly hovering over Draco's face, ready to obliterate him.
"Now, now," Draco began, raising his arms above his head slowly to show his surrender. He glanced to his right. If Draco was quick, he could make a quick getaway. Ginny seemed anticipate this and straddled him, pushing her weight on him to keep him pinned to the ground. This was much better, Draco thought to himself. Suddenly preserving his face had very little importance. "We should have more snowball fights if they end like this every time, Weasley."
"Save your sweet talk, Malfoy," Ginny said harshly, trying to show him who had the upper hand here though Draco was hardly convinced. "Say you surrender and admit you were jealous or you'll get it!"
"Get it?" Draco looked up at her smugly, arching an eyebrow suggestively. "And are YOU going to give it to me, Weasley?"
Ginny pinked slightly but tried to maintain her cool. It was too easy. "I-I… well, yes. I'll smother your face with snowballs!" she added quickly.
"Oh yeah?" Draco challenged. With a quick twist, the roles had been reversed and Ginny lay flat on her back, her wand having been tossed to the side. Her breath came out in quick puffs as she looked up at Draco in surprise. "No, YOU'RE going to get it…" Draco growled before leaning in and kissing Ginny hotly on the mouth. Now this was his kind of winter activity.
All previous arguments and accusations had been forgotten. After one last lingering kiss inside the dark entryway of Hogwarts, Draco and Ginny separated to return, shivering and wet to their houses. Draco again slipped his numb, tingly hands back into his pockets. As he replayed the events over again in his head, a smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. He doubted very much that the snow had anything to do with the tingling he felt inside, though he'd be the last to actually admit it.